Chapter Five Onir‟S My Brother…Nikhil and Ganguly‟S Arekti Premer Golpo
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Chapter Five Onir‟s My Brother…Nikhil and Ganguly‟s Arekti Premer Golpo 5.1. Introduction Onir‟s My Brother…Nikhil and Kaushik Ganguly‟s Arekti Premer Golpo, located in different time and spaces within India make use of a documentary apparatus. Both the films adopt film within film strategy, to weave fact with fiction. On these grounds the films are grouped together in this chapter. As has been mentioned earlier, thiscriterion in putting them together does not limit the focus of analysis. 5.2. My Brother…Nikhil Anirban Dhar, known as Onir, is one of the few openly gay film makers in India. He was born in a Bengali family living in Thimpu, Bhutan and later shifted to Kolkata, India for his higher education and career. Surprisingly, in a country where homosexuality is still legally considered a crime punishable under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, Onir went on to win the state instituted national award, for his film I Am in 2010 in which one of the four stories, deals with the harassment of a gay person by a police officer under section 377. With his first Hindi/English feature film My Brother… Nikhil, he showed Bollywood film makers that a gay love story can be told on the Indian screen sensitively, to the mainstream audiencethat is heterogeneous, without generating controversies or creating stereotypical laughing stock caricatures. My Brother…Nikhil is Onir‟s first low budget feature film, as an independent director and co-producer. Though not a blockbuster at the box office, the film brought accolades to Onir and established him firmly as a film director. It won more than 10 international awards. The film had an interesting production history. Recounting his pre-production experience Sanjay Suri in his foreword to the screenplay of the film, mentions that when they were looking for producers for My Brother…Nikhil, many refused to fund the film. He mentions, “…most of them were not used to making films with subjects dealing with HIV/AIDS and homosexuality. It was considered loss-making project on paper” (2011: 01). Hence, Onir 161 and Suri decided to generate funds and produce the film on their own. The film, then, was produced under Four Front Productions, a joint venture by Onir, Sanjay Suri, Vicky Tejwani and Raj Kaushal. Surprisingly, after the production, looking at the merit and its potential to tap the market, Karan Johar offered to and did distribute the film, under the Yash Raj Films banner. The film was inspired by the real-life and tragic death of a Wild Life photographer, a young man from Goa named Dominic D‟Souza, the first Indian to be diagnosed with HIV. However, the film did have a tough time with the Films Censor Board of India. In an interview given to a TV channel at the Amsterdam Indian Film Festival, Onir disclosed that in a meeting with the members of the film Censor Board, he was told to feature a disclaimer stating that the film was fictional or it would not get a certificate from the board (“Gay India: Onir director of My brother Nikhil”, 2009). The film was not promoted as an HIV/AIDS film or Gay Film for the fear that this would result in undesirable responses. A critically acclaimed Hindi remake of Philadelphia with a heterosexual AIDS victim, Phir Milenge had sunk at the box office despite UNDP25 support and controversies over Mehta‟s Fire and Razdan‟s Girlfriend were fresh. The film received mixed reviews. While many praised the film for a sensitive handling of the theme, Somini Sengupta (2005) termed it as “a tear jerker- a story of forbidden love and its social consequences” and “part of a new breed of Bollywood pictures known here as the "multiplex movie" appealing to an urban middle-class audience, peppered with English phrases and easy on the song-and-dance numbers and potboiler story lines usually associated with Indian commercial cinema” (n.p.). 5.2.1. Story in a Nutshell The story is set in the southern, formerly Portuguese state of Goa. Nikhil (Sanjay Suri) is the youngest sibling and the only son in the Kapoor family. Nikhil‟s father, Navin Kapoor (Victor Banerjee) is a North Indian from a trading community whose family might have settled in Goa long back. He runs an antique furniture store. He is married to 25 United Nation’s Development Programme. 162 Anita Rosario (Lilette Dubey) a Christian, who is proud of her Portuguese connection. Anamika, (Juhi Chawala) Nikhil‟s sister, is a school teacher. Nikhil‟s father grooms Nikhil to become a sportsman and imposes his dream of becoming one on Nikhil. Nikhil receives a scholarship from the Sports Ministry and later on, is offered a job in a bank. While Nikhil loves, adores and follows his father as his hero, he has different aspirations and plans for his life which he is never able to articulate due to his father‟s dominating personality. Nigel De Costa (Purab Kohil) is a researcher at the Institute of Oceanography, whose parents, though from Goa, have settled in Dubai. Nikhil meets Nigel at a party and they fall in love with each other. Anamika meets Nikhil‟s friend Sam Fernandez (Gautam Kapoor) at a party and they too fall in love with each other. One day Nikhil‟s team doctor calls him up and tells him that he is diagnosed with HIV. Nikhil breaks down on hearing the news. The news goes viral in the city. His team and his friends abandon him. Despite Anamika‟s request, his father throws him out of their house. The mother helplessly follows his father. Nikhil moves in with Nigel who then takes care of him. However, Nikhil is summoned to the police station and is later locked up in an abandoned dirty sanitarium outside the city. Overcome by the humiliation and to avoid the shaming gaze of society, Nikhil‟s parents decide to leave Goa and go to Bombay. However, Anamika decides to stay back and support her brother in his struggle as well as look after the family business. Anamika, Sam and Nigel approach Advocate Anjali Menezes (Shweta Kawatra) to fight Nikhil‟s case on their behalf. They open an appeal and awareness campaign to bring Nikhil home. After three months, Nikhil receives release orders and moves in with Nigel. Nikhil comes to know that he has lost his job because his office fears that they will get infected by Nikhil. Nikhil instead of putting up a fight against this discrimination decides to stay home and give lessons in music to children. In the meanwhile Nikhil‟s parents come back for Anamika‟s wedding but do not ask Nikhil to come home. Eventually Nikhil develops AIDS and his health further deteriorates. At last his father, overcome with grief brings Nikhil home. Nikhil dies after some days. Anamika, Nigel and Sam start 163 an NGO named People‟s Positive in Nikhil‟s honour and continue to work for people who are HIV positive, in India. 5.2.2. Analysis In various interviews as well as in his director‟s note (2010), Onir mentioned that he was moved by the real life story of Dominique D‟Souza, the first known HIV positive case in India, while he edited some documentary material on him. Dominique was a wild life photographer and a swimming champion. He was gay but his family did not acknowledge it even after his death. After being detected with HIV, Dominique started working as an activist to support other HIV Positive people. He died in 1992. “Nikhil was born out of Dominique”, Onir reveals (2011: 100). As mentioned earlier, he wanted to put in the film that it was inspired by a real story but when he showed it to the Censor Board they conditioned that he had to put a card, saying, it was all fictitious otherwise the censor would not pass. As a result, the film put a disclaimer before the opening scene. (Figure 117) There are many possible interpretations of the board‟s decision; one being the then Censor Board‟s conservative and homophobic attitudes. Figure 117: The disclaimer at the opening of the film. MBN. A Queer Love Story in a Family Drama Template It is clear from Onir‟s interviews that the politics of acceptability by mainstream audience was more important than the politics of identity or the politics of pleasure. The major characters from whose perspective the story gets told are, Nikhil‟s sister Anamika and 164 Nikhil‟s lover Nigel. However, the title of the film is My Brother… Nikhil, and, not My Lover…Nikhil. Commenting on this Onir said: One of the central themes of the film is a gay theme but I knew if this was perceived as a gay film people wouldn‟t come and see the film. Therefore for me it was very very important that the people in India see the film. And that was one reason why the film was called My Brother…Nikhil and not My Lover…Nikhil, you know…because it was telling a story of a brother from the point of view of a sister, which is again a very special relationship in India… and how the audience start loving this character till they discover that he is gay… and by then.. they already, you know… are liking the character so they don‟t easily reject it… so it is a very careful positioning because I wanted it to be released in mainstream theatres where people get to see the film. (“Gay India: Onir director of My brother Nikhil”, 2009 [Researcher‟s transcription]) This facilitates an interesting reading of cultural understanding that a film from the non- Western world can offer.